I have to say I am pretty pissed off as of late. As a breeder I am trying to enjoy this hobby while I actually make some money. The term investment often accompanies higher priced animals. This gives buyers the impression we will not only enjoy owning these beautiful snakes but see a return off them. I have always attempted to keep my pricing along the line of "market" prices. Now it is safe to assume that prices are lower than market for friends and repeat customers. I do it, and have no problem with anyone else doing it. What bothers me is what I see on the classifieds. Many breeders who undoubtedly sold numerous high end snakes to customers over the past few years suddenly put these snakes into a nose dive of declinig prices, falling at a ridiculous rate, especially the Snows. So it went from,,,,these rare snakes...to they aint worth diddly anymore. So what if there's a hell of a lot more now than there was a few years back. Everyone understands that prices fall annually. Why the race to dump off these snakes that did people who worked with them justice and made them a good buck over the years? Especially after the marketing of how people who have only recently been able to start working with them were told how this snake had a promising future with new morphs and combos on the horizon. For these people to turn their backs on the customers they sold snakes too and also give a discouraging impression to others who are interested in working with them who now WON'T cause of this crash is a lousy way to show us how we did the right thing by getting into Hondurans. There was no need to bombard the classifieds with pricing half of what it was last year, and even if it was ONE morph...now it is dragging the rest of them down with it too. So what can we expect next year?? And what will these types of breeders ruin for the newer folks next? What goes on off the net in private....with the same lower prices could have existed WITHOUT making it appear as these beautiful snakes are on a serious decline in pricing. Now the new market pricing seems to have been established and it stinks.... I know a few people who are waiting for this flow of cheap "high end" morphs to be bought up so that possibly some more suitable pricing can come back and hopefully save this snake from being a 50 dollar pet shop special. I just produced some Ghosts for the first time this year, and I am extremely happy about that, market crash or not. I will continue to work with these snakes, as I love them, high dollar or not. But it does suck that I could get 2 Snows this year for the price I paid for an Albino het Anery x Anery het Albino pair last year. Tom Stevens

[ Show Entire Thread ]